1. The .01% Have as Much Wealth as 80% of America
Global Wealth Databook 2015 (GWD: https://www.credit-suisse.com/ch/en/news-and-expertise/research/credit-suisse-research-institute/publications.html)
Total U.S. wealth is about $86 trillion (Table 2-4)
http://gabriel-zucman.eu/files/SaezZucman2016QJE.pdf (Saez & Zucman, Table 1)
Top .01% (16,070 families) own 11.2 percent of the wealth, or $9.63 trillion
http://www.nber.org/papers/w20733 (Edward Wolff, Table 2)
Bottom 80% owns 11.1 percent of total wealth, or $9.55 trillion
Note: The Credit Suisse GWD says bottom 80% has 12.8 percent of the wealth, or $11 trillion (Table 6-5). See also the note on the IPS study in (4) below.
2. Americans with up to a Quarter-Million Dollars are Part of the Nearly 80% of Americans with Less Wealth Than the .01%
Global Wealth Databook 2015, Table 6-5: $276,690 needed to be in top 20% in North America
3. The .01% Own about as Much as 75% of the Entire World
Global Wealth Databook 2015 (GWD: https://www.credit-suisse.com/ch/en/news-and-expertise/research/credit-suisse-research-institute/publications.html)
World wealth is about $250 trillion (Table 2-4)
70% own 2.9 percent of the wealth, or $7.25 trillion
80% own 5.5 percent of the wealth, or $13.75 trillion
By extrapolation, 75% of the world owns approximately 4 percent of the global wealth.
The $9.6 trillion owned by the U.S. .01% is also about 4 percent of the global wealth.
4. The .01% - Who Are They?
http://www.forbes.com/billionaires/list/21/
536 U.S. billionaires with a total net worth of about $2.6 trillion
http://www.wealthx.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/American-Ultra-Wealth-Ranking-2014-2015.pdf
Ultra High Net Worth Individuals (UHNWIs)
571 > $1 billion, total $2266 billion (2013-14 data)
350 > $750 million, total $290 billion
1110 > $500 million, total $755 billion
2135 > $250 million, total $954 billion
3940 > $200 million, total $920 billion
5285 > $100 million, total $1020 billion
~2600 near $100 million, total ~$260 billion
Grand Total for the .01% comes to about $6.2 trillion.
But according to the GWD U.S. wealth has increased by 30 percent since the end of 2012, which helps to account for the difference from that noted above.
The Forbes 400 total has increased by 38 percent in just three years:
Forbes 400 in 2012: $1.70 trillion (http://www.forbes.com/sites/luisakroll/2012/09/19/the-forbes-400-the-richest-people-in-america/)
Forbes 400 in 2013: $2.00 trillion (http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbespr/2013/09/16/forbes-announces-its-32nd-annual-forbes-400-ranking-of-the-richest-americans/)
Forbes 400 in 2015: $2.34 trillion (http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbespr/2015/09/29/forbes-announces-34th-annual-forbes-400-ranking-of-the-richest-americans/)
Institute for Policy Studies (IPS, Collins and Hoxie: http://www.ips-dc.org/billionaire-bonanza/)
IPS uses the Survey of Consumer Finances (http://www.federalreserve.gov/econresdata/scf/scfindex.htm, Table 4 in the Data)
For the most recent (2013) mean family net worth, using the census.gov figure (below) of 125 million households:
Bottom Quartile: -13.4K x 30 million families => -$415 billion
Second Quartile: 35.9K x 30 million families => $1113 billion
Third Quartile: 177.7K x 30 million families => $5509 billion
So the bottom 75% owned about $6.2 trillion in 2013.
Notes on Family vs. Household vs. Individual Tax Units
Census Bureau (http://www.census.gov/hhes/families/data/cps2015AVG.html, http://www.census.gov/hhes/families/about/)
125 million households, 82 million family households (families)
Household: an occupied housing unit.
Family household: a household in which there is at least 1 person present who is related to the householder by birth, marriage or adoption.
Saez and Zucman (http://gabriel-zucman.eu/files/SaezZucman2016QJE.pdf, http://gabriel-zucman.eu/files/SaezZucman2014.pdf, http://gabriel-zucman.eu/uswealth/)
160 million families
Family: either a single person aged 20 or above or a married couple
Institute for Policy Studies (http://www.ips-dc.org/billionaire-bonanza/)
From Census Bureau: America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2014 -- Average Number Of People Per Household
Washington Center for Equitable Growth (http://equitablegrowth.org/tax-units-versus-households-measure-income/)
For most people, their tax unit and household are the same. But there are cases where a household would include multiple tax units.